


sparks fly

by justflydude



Series: rina week 2020 [1]
Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: ;), F/M, Friends to Lovers, Kissing in the Rain, Rina Week 2020 (HSM: The Series), i am quite proud of this one! no plot holes like last time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:07:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24160315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justflydude/pseuds/justflydude
Summary: rina one shot based on "sparks fly" by taylor swift; in hindsight i'm deciding that rina didn't have their cheek kiss in the car bc it makes more sense w how this played out !!
Relationships: Ricky Bowen & Nini Salazar-Roberts, Ricky Bowen/Gina Porter
Series: rina week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1743571
Comments: 3
Kudos: 34





	sparks fly

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first official one shot for rina week! 2.7k words is literally the most i've ever written but i think i like how it turned out! also i have, like, an emotional attachment to this song and writing this did NOT help. 
> 
> n e ways,, shoutout to jas & roe for proofreading & validating me lmao. enjoy!!

**_I'm on my guard for the rest of the world,_ **

**_but with you I know it's no good_ **

  
  
  


If you told Gina Porter six months ago that, after going to a homecoming dance, she would be sitting in a booth at Denny’s and telling a skater boy everything there is to know about her, she would laugh in your face.

Not because she’s rude, but because she knows herself. And that isn’t the Gina Porter that she knows. 

The Gina Porter that she knows is guarded, closed-off, distant. It’s not that she didn’t want friends (because _God_ , did she ever), but she knew that the chances of her staying in one place for more than a year were about as high as her chances of winning the lottery— she knew it was easier to leave when she didn’t have people she cared enough about to say goodbye to.

This new Gina Porter was really throwing her for a loop, and Ricky Bowen had almost everything to do with it.

Had he not, at the last light before turning into her neighborhood, suggested with a sideways smile that they get something to eat before dropping her off, maybe the Gina Porter that she knew would still be trying to ignore the tugging on her heartstrings that prompt her to tell him about how her dad left and her mom’s job. But he _did_ give her the lopsided grin and she _does_ feel the insistent tugging, so here she is: this new, vulnerable Gina Porter.

It was more than the smile though, of course. She didn’t know if Ricky managed to do this with everyone he drove home after homecoming, but she felt like all her emotional baggage was safe with him— like he truly listened, free of judgement, and empathized with her. That feeling was reciprocated, apparently, as he told her about his parents’ impending separation and how he misses living with his mom over their shared basket of french fries. 

Gina felt a lot better about being open than she thought she would, a lot less scared of the pain that it may cause in the future. _There’s no going back,_ she thought— but with Ricky Bowen? She got the feeling that she wouldn’t have to.

(It totally didn’t help her case when, the next day, he practically serenades her with Vanessa Hudgins’ _When There Was Me and You_ on the guitar. What is this guy’s deal?)

  
  
  


**_You're the kind of reckless that should send me running,_ **

**_but I kinda know that I won't get far_ **

  
  
  


After a few months of spending time with Ricky, both within and outside of the confines of theater-related activities and obligations, Gina has come to a wondrous conclusion: she was completely and utterly screwed.

Gina was still learning how to navigate the winding roads that are friendships, but the one thing that she’s known from the start is that she cannot, under _any_ circumstances, catch feelings. If there was a formal list of rules lying around somewhere, she was almost certain that it’d be at the top. 

Yet she somehow managed to break it.

Could you blame her, though? First of all, she has _eyes_ — there’s the smile that meets his eyes when he laughs at one of her jokes (and, let’s be honest, when he laughs at his own), and the curls that haphazardly flop over his forehead in an imperfectly perfect kind of way. But then there’s also his inability to dance and lack of rhythm that he somehow embraces in a way only he can, and the way he’s always able to make her laugh even if it’s with something stupid like tugging on one of her curls.

Another thing that Gina discovered— which, again, did _not_ help her case— was that Ricky is a very tactile person. When he’s nervous, he likes to have a hand to hold onto. When he laughs, a hand on her arm or her shoulder wasn’t uncommon. He often greets her with a hug, always happy to see her. Were these normal friend things? Maybe. She knows the hugs and the shoulder grab weren’t necessarily reserved for her and her alone, but they gave her butterflies nonetheless.

There was one downside to the whole friendship thing, one aspect that Gina must’ve skimmed over in the fine print, that made her want to run: he told her everything, one of those things being his...girl troubles.

It made her want to relapse into her old, stand-offish Gina ways— in fact, it took all the willpower she could muster to not do exactly that.

Because as much as it hurt her to hear him talk about how he wanted things with Nini to be how they used to be and brainstorm ideas on how to woo her, she had no doubt that it would hurt her even more to simply not have him in her life (as little as possible, anyways, given they still had rehearsals and all). 

Now that he’s wiggled his way into her heart— and made himself rather comfortable there— she knew that even if she tried to run, she definitely wouldn’t have gotten very far.

  
  
  


**_My mind forgets to remind me, you’re a bad idea_ **

  
  
  


Gina swears she could feel a rush of serotonin course through her body at the sound of her mom’s words over the phone; _You can stay, baby._

The rest of her mom’s spiel— about how she wants her to be happy, how she agrees that it would be unfair for her to have to move again so soon, how Ashlyn’s mother seems like a very nice woman— fades into the background as Gina’s mind runs a mile per minute.

_You can stay._

Ashlyn stares expectantly at her stunned face, not being able to gauge whether she was reacting to positive or negative news— once Gina finally gets over the initial shock and her previously parted lips break out into a grin, Ashlyn does a celebratory dance beside her on the bed while she waits for Gina to get off the phone. When she finally hangs up she aimlessly tosses her phone aside and joins Ashlyn in dancing on the bed (not caring that both EJ and his aunt could probably hear their gleeful squeals from downstairs). _Maybe Ashlyn will be the next person to meet the new, okay-with-vulnerability Gina Porter._

She could finally stay, and _boy_ did it feel good.

⋆¸*ೃ☼

As she assists Ashlyn and EJ in preparing for the cast party they were hosting, Gina can’t help but think about telling Ricky the good news. She’s kicking herself for it, because she’s also going to tell the rest of the cast and she knows they’ll be just as happy for her, so why does it feel like she should tell him separately?

_He’s just a friend,_ she reminds herself, having a bit of a back-and-forth with herself while pouring pretzels into a bowl. _Your_ best _friend though, Gina!_ She did make a point there. 

_He’s said ‘I miss you’ at least once every facetime. Doesn’t that count for something? And what about the awkward pauses? The ones where it seems like he has something to say to you, but he can’t find the words? Or the way that he smiles at you so fondly through the screen? How he_ —

Her internal ramble is cut off by the sound of the doorbell ringing. 

“I got it!” she yells up the staircase as she walks past. She swings the door open to see the boy in question, hand-in-hand with none other than Nini Salazar-Roberts. 

“G- Gina, hey...” Ricky stammers, a little shocked, before flashing the smile that she missed seeing so much. He lets go of Nini’s hand to pull her into a hug. “Didn’t expect to see you here!”

She smiles as she pulls away from hugging Nini, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “Yeah, me either actually...there were some last minute changes. I’m staying the night at Ashlyns.” _If he wants to withhold some information, then so can I._

Ricky’s smile falters just a little, as if he started to connect some dots but decides against saying anything. “Just can’t get enough of us, can you?”

“You know it,” her smile is a little more genuine by then. Gina opens the door wider for them to come in, her eyes flashing down at their once again intertwined hands. Then they meet his gaze— which was already fixed on her— just for a second, but he knows what she’s thinking. 

She makes a mental note to hold back on the preemptive wishful thinking next time.

  
  
  


**_Drop everything now, meet me in the pouring rain,_ **

**_kiss me on the sidewalk, take away the pain_ **

  
  
  


The rain falls upon the roof and windows with a muffled _pitter patter_ , something that had always put Gina at ease. She’s in her room listening to Taylor Swift’s _1989_ on her record player and doing homework at her desk, though she’s barely able to keep her eyes open as it’s 11 p.m. and rehearsals were particularly exhausting today.

She groans at the thought of the scene she had to mark with Ricky, crossing her arms on her desk and resting her head on top of them. Both Kourtney and EJ being absent today did _not_ help their...situation.

Ricky and Gina have been in a bit of an awkward patch for awhile— a few days after the cast party they had hashed the whole lack of communication issue out, ending with a reconciliatory hug and Gina’s feelings remaining unspoken. 

Yes, she heard herself say that _if she tried to run, she wouldn’t get very far_ or whatever, but easier said than done. Believe her, she _tried_ — seeing them together was painful enough...she knew that having to be in close proximity and pretending to _not_ be in love with him would’ve ruined her.

She had gotten word from Carlos that he and Nini had broken up a few weeks ago, with Nini in Denver and long distance apparently not working for them, but she felt like she had dug herself in too deep to approach him about it now. 

Gina’s still working on her opening-up skills, though, just not with Ricky anymore; she often found herself confiding in Ashlyn and EJ, and it felt nice to not feel dependent on one person for all the emotional support. It was a little tough at first, but soon enough they started to feel like the siblings that she never had. 

She brings her head back up from its position in her arms and pats her cheeks to wake herself up a little— she just wanted to get her work done so she could go to sleep and the _last_ thing she wanted to think about right now was the wonderstudy disaster of a rehearsal she endured today.

About ten minutes into her concentration, Gina hears a small _tick_ coming from the direction of her upstairs window. Her heart rate increases, much more alert than she was seconds prior. _What if it’s a serial killer or something?_ She grabs the ruler from one of her desk drawers just as she hears another _tick_ . _If they’re hanging by their fingertips it won’t take much to knock them down, right?_

She cautiously approaches the window in question and is momentarily relieved that there was no serial killer, but her heart stops when she sees who _is_ there: Ricky.

Shaking her head in disbelief, she opens the window, a gust of cold air rushing in after doing so.

“Ricky?” She practically has to yell over the sound of the rain. “I might wake up all the neighbors if I have to talk any louder!”

“Come down here, then!” 

“Are you _crazy?_ ” She feigns exasperation, but already knows she’s going to go down there. 

All Ricky does is shrug, his arms raised. “Anything new?”

Gina rolls her eyes, and before she knows it she’s tip-toeing down the stairs of the quiet house with her raincoat in tow.

She opens and shuts the front door as quietly as she can before approaching the boy, who was now on the sidewalk in front of the house.

“Aw, you brought a raincoat? You’re no fun,” Ricky muses.

“At least I’m not catching a cold.”

He lets out a half-hearted chuckle and tilts his head up towards the downpour. “Hate to break it to you, Gi, but I think you’re catching a cold, jacket or not.” He looks back at her, arms crossed over her chest. 

Gina opens her mouth to say something but he beats her to it, “Listen, I...hated rehearsal today. I just- I hate not talking to you.” Her expression softens at his sincere tone. He takes a deep breath before continuing, “like, I thought we were good? After we talked about the whole Nini thing? And so I- is there something else I did? Because this is killing me. If I did something else, just...let me know. _Please_.” 

Gina could already feel the tears forming in her eyes— she tries to will them away, blinking rapidly and looking down at her shoes, but the rain also gets in her eyes so it doesn’t feel much different. She brings her eyes back up to meet his, shining with a desperation she had only seen him direct towards Nini.

(What she didn’t see, though, was how that look had been directed towards _her_ a countless amount of times in their period of not talking. More than Ricky cared to admit.)

Ricky lifts one hand up to caress her cheek, his heart breaking a little at the sight of her so distraught over something. _Little did he know_. “Hey, you know you can always talk to me...right? I don’t care if we’re on bad terms, i- if something’s going on I’m-”

“I’m in love with you,” Gina blurts out before she could stop herself. _Nice one, Gina._

“What?” Ricky mumbles, his voice barely above a whisper.

“ _God,_ Ricky, I don’t think I even realized until I was in New York,” she breathes out a laugh, averting her gaze past his head. “But I love you...and you don’t have to say anything- I was like, guarding my heart or whatever and I should’ve just sucked it up and dealt with it because I hate not talking to you, too. And I know you don’t feel the same but after putting you through all this you just- you deserve to know-”

Gina’s cut off by Ricky’s lips on hers, one hand finding her waist and gently pulling her closer, the other still on her cheek. At first she’s shocked, but her eyes flutter shut on their own accord and shortly after she’s kissing him back. Despite the cold, Gina feels like she’s on fire— she feels _alive._ Her hands move to Ricky’s chest, one of them wandering up to the nape of his neck and into the curls there.

They finally pull away, out of breath and smiling like idiots.

“I’m in love with you too, Ginarina” His nose bumps into hers as their foreheads meet. “Have been ever since you told me you listen to _Hamilton_ in the shower.”

Gina scoffs and playfully hits his arm. “Shut up, Bowen.”

“Mm, but you love me anyway,” Ricky hums. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever get used to saying that. 

“That I do,” a comfortable silence settles between them for a few seconds, admiring each other before Gina speaks up again. “You know, we definitely could’ve done this inside.”

“We could’ve,” he looks up at the sky and lets the rain fall directly onto his face again before Gina does the same. “But it was more romantic this way.”

“Oh?” she tries her best to suppress her laughter. “You were just that confident that we were gonna kiss, huh?”

Ricky scoffs, but Gina can tell he’s trying not to laugh, too. “Please, I wouldn’t have made you come out here in the rain if I didn’t plan on kissing you.”

There’s another beat of silence, both of them blushing at his words.

“Well,” Gina sighs as she pushes Ricky’s wet curls away from his forehead. “We might have to do it again if the colds we’re about to have are gonna be worth it.”

Ricky grins again, lips hovering over hers. “Don’t have to tell me twice.”


End file.
